INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 Ask any of the Indiana Fever players about their head coach Stephanie White, something different stands out to each of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a player’s coach,\u201d guard Ty Harris said. Rookie guard Raven Johnson added, \u201cShe\u2019s funny!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s knows what it takes to win in this league,\u201d guard Sophie Cunningham said, while fellow veteran Lexie Hull added, \u201cShe\u2019s the engine of this train.\u201d<\/p>\n
White did the unthinkable last year, leading a Fever team decimated with injuries to one win away from the WNBA Finals. Even in the pits of adversity, she didn\u2019t shy away from the challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, it\u2019s really hard coaching a new group of girls basically every other week, so I think for her, we were just really lucky that she came in every single day with a plan,\u201d Hull said. \u201cShe just spoke life into us. We all had confidence because of what she believed in us.\u201d<\/p>\n
White talked about what she learned the most from the tumultuous 2025 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that we have to feel the things that we\u2019re feeling in the moment, but then we have to turn the page and problem solve,\u201d White said. \u201cWe can\u2019t let circumstances dictate how we show up every day. We have to be creative in the ways that we\u2019re able to not survive but thrive\u2026 And I think all of those things coming together in life and in basketball really help this team understand how important it is to be connected.\u201d<\/p>\n
Between her time with the Connecticut Sun and last year\u2019s miraculous Fever run, White\u2019s teams have made it to the WNBA semifinals the last three years. While all that success is great, she\u2019s now more determined than ever to get this year\u2019s squad to the finals.<\/p>\n
\u201c(I\u2019m) Very hungry. Very hungry,\u201d White said. \u201cBut, I\u2019ve been in this league long enough to know that it doesn\u2019t happen now. We\u2019ve got to take it one day at a time\u2026 I\u2019m competitive. I\u2019m firery. I think I\u2019m flexible \u2013 more so than I was as a young head coach\u2026 I want to compete. I want to win. I want to put our team in position to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
White has made a major impression on her players.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust to be the great woman and role model she was and is for us on a daily basis,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cShe wants greatness for us, but also she just cares for us as human beings. So when you have a coach that really pours into your personal life and truly loves you for you, I just think that speaks volumes, especially at this level\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know what Steph brings to the table, and we just want to make her proud and respect her because that\u2019s what she gives us every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
And maybe give her another championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 Ask any of the Indiana Fever players about their head coach Stephanie White, something different stands…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-624386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}